New Blackhawks lines:
Saad-Toews-DeBrincat
Panik-Schmaltz-Kane
Sharp-Anisimov-Hayden
Bouma-Wingels-Hartman
Blackhawks defenseman pairings
Keith-Rutta
Forsling-Seabrook
Kempny-Murphy
Oesterle-Franson
- JRoenick97
My thoughts:
I like the D pairings. Forget who i was saying this too (may have been on the Shoutcast night before last), the D has been better the last two years when 7 and 2 are split up and paired with youngsters.
For whatever reason, 7 and 2 don't seem to have that chemistry anymore. And certainly, their experience spread out with all these young blueliners is a plus.
I am glad Kempny is back in and with Murphy. If they don't play heavy minutes, and are used the right way, that can be a good pair.
I HAVE MY DOUBTS about the lines.
ADB is probably better on the left, and Panik is definitely better on the right. When the Hawks force guys onto the wings where they are less comfortable, it never seems to work.
I also think that SO MUCH of what makes Saad and Toes effective is that low cycle, puck possession game and Panik (and before him Hossa) helped drive that.
It MAY work that Saad and Toews can do enough of the cycling/heavy lifting and puck retrieval and get ADB the puck in shooting position. But I worry that the cycle/puck possession is going to suffer with a guy who is absolutely not a power player who is really strong on the puck as the other wing.
Panik is highly underrated as a shooter, but on the left side, he does not have the full arc of shooting angles he has on the right and as I recall does not look comfortable over there, either.
We'll see.
I am fine with Hartman on L4, that line gets a little nastier and maybe a half step quicker.
